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More than a dozen Boynton Beach officers call out of work Tuesday

“As a result, we are shifting to an alternate deployment schedule, whereby specialty units will be augmenting road patrol officers until we can ensure patrol personnel are reliably reporting for duty as scheduled,” said Chief Jeffrey Katz in a statement to the department. “All schools and pre-arranged leave time will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. No further leave with be authorized until further notice. Our primary objectives at this point are officer safety and our responsiveness to the public, while inconvenient to all of us, this strategy represents our best opportunity to ensure both.”

It is unclear whether this is related to the ongoing contentious contract negotiations between the city and the police union.

However, Mayor Jerry Taylor mentioned it might be.

“I don’t know if that’s legitimate or if they’re trying to make a statement,” Taylor said. “I don’t know if they heard something they don’t like.”

Taylor added, the public should not be concerned about safety: “We got the city covered. It’s not a problem.”

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I think this has gone on far long enough. The PBA is obviously behind this and of course they will not admit to anything because the POs will be punished. The department is plagued by cops who think they deserve more than the citizens deserve protection. These cops doing this just indicates how selfish they are by placing fellow officers at risk. Fire them all!

The "Blue Flu" typically solves nothing except add an additional workload to the remaining staff. Go to "Impasse" on the contract and/ or do a "Vote of No Confidence" on the Chief. The "Blue Flu" also turns what could be a supportive public against you.

they decided to take the risk of group walk-out; let's see if they can handle the consequences. fire them all and let them lose their cushy pensions. they should have been happy to be employed. now they can be rent a security cop at 1/25th of the pay. fools

Seems like the officers wanted to watch the world cup match like everyone else. I would fire every one of those disloyal public servants. To think their is a large waiting list to become an police officer in Boynton and the chief puts up with this conduct! Make a statement and respond to it because they will do it again.

I'm ALL for taking good and proper care of our police force, but they've got to be flexible at the same time......and the "Blue Flu" is NOT the way to go about it.

They should fire their union boss, then take their 2-3 best people and lock them in a room with the City Manager and Chief Katz........then stay there until they hammer out an agreement.

But the city needs to remember that when something goes horribly wrong in our lives, we call the police, NOT city hall, so the city needs to deal in good faith too, because this entire negotiation has gone on for far too long.

@bhd2801 more with less is stupid...you go do more with less...obviously they called out for a reason which none of us know exactly why for a fact. What really should be happening is someone finding out what is making our security so in happy.

@bhd2801 Boca PD more and more is using a network of private video cameras to monitor entire Boca Raton. With how popular home video systems are becoming, THERE IS LESS AND LESS a need for these PATROL DEPLOYMENT. MORE WITH LESS agreed, BBPD according to my Boynton Beach CPA's has been saying same for at least 4 years now while BBPD has been arrested for sell cocaine and other criminals.